Mller Lecture
Presented by Evert Hoek, September 1991
Proceedings of the 7th International Congress on Rock Mechanics, Aachen
Rotterdam: A.A. Balkema
Volume 3
Original pagination: 1485-1497.
Figure 1. Section through Dutchman's Ridge showing potential slide surface and
water levels before and after drainage.
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Figure 3. Cross-section through a section of the Wahleach power tunnel showing the
original tunnel alignment and the location of the replacement conduit. The dashed line
is the approximate location of a gradational boundary between loosened, fractured and
weathered rock and more intact rock. Down slope movement currently being
monitored is well above this boundary.
Deformation of rock slopes
In a slope in which the rock is jointed but where there are no significant
discontinuities dipping out of the slope which could cause sliding, deformation and
failure of the slope is controlled by a complex process of block rotation, tilting and
sliding. In an extreme case, where the rock mass consists of near vertical joints
separating columns of massive rock, toppling movement and failure may occur.
Figure 3 is a section through part of the power tunnel for the Wahleach hydroelectric
project in British Columbia, Canada. A break in the steel lining in this power tunnel
occurred in January 1989 and it is thought this break was caused by a slow downslope gravitational movement caused by block rotations, sliding and tilting of a near
surface zone of loosened jointed rock.
The Wahleach project is located 120 km east of Vancouver and power is generated
from 620 m of head between Wahleach lake and a surface powerhouse located
adjacent to the Fraser River. Water flows through a 3500 m long three metre diameter
unlined upper tunnel, a rock trap, a 600 m two metre diameter concrete encased steel
lined shaft inclined at 48 to the horizontal, a 300 m long lower tunnel and a 485 m
long surface penstock to the powerhouse.
The tunnels were excavated mainly in granodiorite which varies from highly fractured
and moderately weathered in the upper portions of the slope to moderately fractured
and fresh in both the lower portions of the slope and below the highly fractured mass.
Two main joint sets occur in the rock mass: one set striking parallel to the slope and
the other perpendicular to it; both dip very steeply. Average joint spacings range from
0.5 to 1 m. A few joints occur sub-parallel to the ground surface and these joints are
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Dip
Dip Direction
1
2
3
4
50
85
70
50
131
264
226
345
Comments
infrequently occurring joints
shear joint set
shear joint set
tension joint set
Figure 4. Perspective view of Rio Grande power cavern showing potentially unstable
wedges in the roof, sidewalk, bench and floor.
12
13
RMR
6375
5660
1033
Q
1239
713
0.11.1
deg.
50
45
3040
c MPa
1.0
0.8
0.150.3
The measured in situ stresses in the rock mass surrounding the cavern are
approximately:
Maximum principal stress (horizontal) max = 10.9 MPa
Minimum principal stress (vertical) min = 7.5 MPa
The maximum principal stress is oriented parallel to bedding and normal to the cavern
axis.
The results of a simple analysis of the zones of overstress in the rock mass
surrounding the Mingtan underground excavations are presented in Figure 5. The
crosses in this figure are directions along which shear failure is predicted in the
bedded sandstone while the horizontal lines indicate slip along the faults (assuming
c = 0.15 MPa, = 30). While it is not claimed that this analysis adequately
represents the complex process of failure initiation and propagation on the inclined
faults and in the jointed rock mass surrounding the caverns, it does give sufficient
information to suggest that the cavern can be stabilized by means of a pattern of long
grouted cables supplemented by a layer of shotcrete on the excavation surface.
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Figure 6. Lengths of rockbolts and cables used for roof support in some large caverns
in weak rock. Equations defining trend lines were suggested by Barton (1989).
Figure 7. Lengths of rockbolts and cables used for sidewall support in some large
caverns in weak rock. Equations defining trend lines were suggested by Barton
(1989).
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Figure 8. Layout of cables used to support the rock surrounding the power cavern and
the transformer hall in the Mingtan pumped storage project. The location and
properties of the rock units represent those used in the numerical analysis of failure,
deformation and cable loading in a typical vertical section.
Figure 10. Surface displacements and cable loads measured at seven stations along
the power cavern axis.
In Figure 9, the predicted and measured displacements along six extensometers
installed in the power cavern sidewalls are compared. The overall agreement is
considered to be acceptable. Maximum sidewall displacements were of the order of
100 mm at the mid-height of the upstream wall, adjacent to one of the major faults.
Elsewhere, displacements were of the order to 25 to 46 mm.
Figure 10 shows the results of monitoring at seven stations along the axis of the
power cavern. Before excavation of the cavern commenced, extensometers were
installed at each of these stations from a drainage gallery above the roof arch and
from construction galleries as shown in the upper part of Figure 10. In addition, load
cells were installed on cables adjacent to some of the extensometers.
Rapid responses were recorded in all extensometers and load cells as the top heading
passed underneath them. Further responses occurred as the haunches of the cavern
arch were excavated and as the first bench was removed. As can be seen from the
plots, after this rapid response to the initial excavation stages, the displacements and
cable loads became stable and showed very little tendency to increase with time. The
difference in the magnitudes of the displacements and cable loads at different stations
can be related to the proximity of the monitoring instruments to faults in the rock
above the cavern arch.
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SF
1.3
Remarks
1.3
1.5
Critical to design.
1.0
1.2
1.3
One branch of rock mechanics in which probabilistic analyses have been accepted for
many years is that of the design of open pit mine slopes. This is because open pit
planners are familiar with the concepts of risk analysis applied to ore grade and metal
price fluctuations. Probabilistic methods are used in estimating the economic viability
of various options in developing an open pit mine and hence it is a small step to
incorporate the probability of a geotechnical failure into the overall risk assessment of
the mine. The mine planner has the choice of reducing the probability of failure, by
the installation of reinforcement or by reducing the angle of the slope, or of accepting
that failure will occur and providing for extra equipment which may be needed to
clean up the failure. Since the mine is usually owned and operated by a single
company and access to the mine benches is restricted to trained personnel, accepting a
risk of failure and dealing with the consequences on a routine basis is a viable option.
On the other hand, the emotional impact of suggesting to the public that there is a
finite risk of failure attached to a dam design is such that it would take a very brave
(or foolhardy) engineer to propose the replacement of the standard factor of safety
design approach with one which explicitly states a probability of failure or a
coefficient of reliability. The current perception is that the factor of safety is more
meaningful than the probability of failure. Even if this were not so, there is still the
problem of deciding what probability of failure is acceptable for a rock structure to
which the general public has access.
From a statistical analysis of dam failures published by the International Commission
on Large Dams (ICOLD), Silveira (1990) has established that 75% of concrete dam
failures were due to failure through the foundation rock and that the present
probability of foundation failure is 1.0 x 10-5 per dam-year. Hence, in order to
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